U.S. energy-related carbon pollution at lowest since 1994

Date:22-Oct-13Country: USAAuthor: Valerie Volcovici

Carbon dioxide emissions from energy production in the United States fell to 5.29 billion metric tons in 2012 - its lowest level since 1994 - despite a growing economy and rising population, according to government data released on Monday.

The Energy Information Administration, the statistics arm of the Department of Energy, said there was a 3.8 percent drop from the previous year.

That marked the largest decline in a non-recession year since EIA started tracking the data.

The latest decline came amid a large drop in energy intensity, the amount of energy consumed relative to GDP.

"The emissions decline was the largest in a year with positive growth in per capita output and the only year to show a decline where per capita output increased 2 percent or more," the EIA said.